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Single precast concrete rocking walls as earthquake force‐resisting elements
Author(s) -
Nazari Maryam,
Sritharan Sri,
Aaleti Sriram
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
earthquake engineering and structural dynamics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.218
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9845
pISSN - 0098-8847
DOI - 10.1002/eqe.2829
Subject(s) - precast concrete , dissipation , structural engineering , earthquake shaking table , acceleration , engineering , foundation (evidence) , residual , seismic analysis , peak ground acceleration , geotechnical engineering , ground motion , physics , computer science , history , archaeology , classical mechanics , algorithm , thermodynamics
Summary Precast concrete walls with unbonded post‐tensioning provide a simple self‐centering system. Yet, its application in seismic regions is not permitted as it is assumed to have no energy dissipation through a hysteretic mechanism. These walls, however, dissipate energy imparted to them because of the wall impacting the foundation during rocking and limited hysteretic action resulting from concrete nonlinearity. The energy dissipated due to rocking was ignored in previous experimental studies because they were conducted primarily using quasi‐static loading. Relying only on limited energy dissipation, a shake table study was conducted on four single rocking walls (SRWs) using multiple‐level earthquake input motions. All walls generally performed satisfactorily up to the design‐level earthquakes when their performance was assessed in terms of the maximum transient drift, maximum absolute acceleration, and residual drift. However, for the maximum considered earthquakes, the walls experienced peak lateral drifts greater than the permissible limits. Combining the experimental results with an analytical investigation, it is shown that SRWs can be designed as earthquake force‐resisting elements to produce satisfactory performance under design‐level and higher‐intensity earthquake motions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.